Mapping a custom naked domain to your Azure Website, a URL with no www

A naked URL means that there is no www before the domain name and domain extension. For example, http://www.benjamin.perkins.me which I use often to troubleshoot and experiment with mapping custom domains to my Azure Web App. An example of how to do map a custom domain is provided here, and would more than likely result in your naked domain (http://benjamin-perkins.me) working. However, if some configuration gets skipped or mixed up, you might need these instructions too.

The key point is that you must have an A Record that points to the IP address provided via the Microsoft Azure management portal. For example, that shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1, mapping a naked custom domain to Azure Web App, I.e. no www

Note that the IP address is 137.135…., this is the value you need to set you’re a Record to.

Before I could enter benjamin-perkins.me into the Manage custom domain section I needed to add a CNAME as mentioned in Figure 1. I logged into my DNS providers web site and made the addition as shown in Figure 2. Note that for this example, I am binding the custom domain to an Azure Web App named IISLOGS.

Figure 2, adding a CNMAE record for enablement of the naked Azure Web App, no www

Once that was added and after it propagated, I was able to add the custom naked domain to my Azure Web App, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3, adding a naked custom domain to Azure Web App, no www

Next step was to then add the A Record using my DNS providers’ web site, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4, adding an A Record for the naked custom URL, no www

Once the A Record propagates then accessing http://benjamin-perkins.me will work. During this configuration testing, it did take some time for the A Record to propagate. I used NSLOOKUP to check what IP address was linked to it. Once I saw that the NSLOOKUP resulted showing the 137.135.* IP address, it worked as expected, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5, using NSLOOKUP to check for A Record propagation, naked URL, no www

See the list of articles below for information about that and how to map other types of custom domains to your Azure Web App.